Bird feed is kept in a small container that is positioned inside the bird cage. The container is typically mounted to the base of the cage at an outer perimeter thereof, at a level where the imperforate walls of the base end and the bars of the cage begin. As every bird owner knows, both seeds and hulls are thrown out of the cage every day, thereby necessitating the sweeping or vacuuming of the floor thereunder.
Several inventors have turned their attention to this problem. U.S. Pat. No. 1,186,782 to Hercer shows a bird cage screen detachably secured to a bird cage that is operative to catch seeds or hulls thrown from the cage. The screen is opaque and thus obstructs the owner's view into the cage. More importantly, it is releasably secured to the cage by hook members which are detachable by the bird within the cage. Moreover, the screen is not easily adaptable to cages of differing sizes, nor can a single panel thereof be removed to the exclusion of the remaining panels.
Another interesting limitation of the Hercer feed screen is that it is of rectangular frame-like construction and must be lowered into position from the top of the cage. Thus, the Hercer construction would have no utility in connection with some modern cages that are wider at the top than at the bottom.
Still another drawback of said earlier-patented screen is that the screens are ultimately held into their operable configuration by gravity only. Thus, an active bird or birds can cause the cage to swing and thereby cause detachment of the screen therefrom.
Modern cages are also provided with a plurality of lift doors positioned on the front of the cage to permit the bird owner to easily fill the seed or water containers by simply momentarily lifting the selected door. The entire Hercer seed guard would require removal if access to such a lift door were desired.
Many other early patents in this field share some of the same limitations. For example, German patent No. 241598 also requires removal of the four seed guards as a unit if access to a lift door is desired.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,506 shows a bird cage design that includes a seed catcher slung below the base of the bird cage. The catcher is non-adjustable and can be detached by the cage occupant.
It is therefore clear that an adjustable-in-size seed guard that attaches to a bird cage in such a way that no bird can remove it would be a desirable item which the average bird owner would purchase if such a guard were commercially available, but the prior art, taken as a whole, neither provides the needed guard, nor does it teach or suggest how such a seed guard could be provided.